Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh was a major battle of the American Civil War which was fought in Hardin County, Tennessee from 6 to 7 April 1862.

Following the losses of the Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson, the Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston abandoned Nashville and withdrew into western Tennessee, northern Mississippi, and Alabama to reorganize. He established his base at the major railroad junction of Corinth, Mississippi, a major link between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean. General Henry W. Halleck, commander of the Union forces in the West, sent Charles Ferguson Smith to raid the railroads in southwestern Tennessee while William T. Sherman's army would sabotage the railroads near Eastport, Mississippi, and Ulysses S. Grant would advance the 40,000-strong Army of the Tennessee up the Mississippi River. Grant left Fort Henry and arrived at Savannah, Tennessee on 14 March, establishing his headquarters on the east bank of the river as he waited for Buell's army to arrive. Together, they planned to attack the Confederate base at Corinth and seize the supply line.

Buell was late to arrive, so Johnston decided to attack Grant's army on the west bank of the Mississippi River at Pittsburgh Landing while they still had even numbers. Sherman's Ohio division joined Grant's army and encamped on a hill near the Methodist church of Shiloh, where the 6th Mississippi Regiment attacked. The battle extended along a 3-mile front, and the Union center wavered as the Confederates launched continuous assaults on their line. In the peach orchard, the Union troops hid in the trees and fired on the advancing Confederates. By late morning, the Union troops began to retreat, and 5,000 troops cowered beneath the river bluff. Johnston informed his second-in-command P.G.T. Beauregard that he would drive them to the river, but Illinois and Iowa troops under Benjamin Prentiss maintained the center at all costs, holding back a dozen assaults in the "Hornet's Nest". Johnston himself charged into battle, he was mortally wounded behind the knee, severing an artery and killing him; he had previously sent his personal surgeon to take care of Union prisoners, condemning himself. Beauregard took command of the Confederate army, and the Confederacy lost its greatest general at the time. The Union center continued to hold against the Confederates, even as they were fired upon by 62 cannon. At 5:30 PM, Prentiss and the remaining 2,200 survivors of his division surrendered, having held up the Southern advance for nearly 6 hours. Beauregard wired Davis that he had won a complete victory, and he planned to finish Grant up in the morning. Grant spent the night beneath a tree, where Sherman found him; Grant said that the Union would lick the Confederates the next day. That same evening, Buell's advance column deployed on the bluffs of Pittsburgh Landing, and Union troops marched ashore as a band played "Dixie".

The 70,000-strong Union force attacked the 30,000 Confederates the next morning, repeatedly pushing them back before Beauregard was forced to withdraw. Nathan Bedford Forrest led a headlong cavalry charge into the pursuing northern army to cover Beauregard's retreat, and Forrest was wounded by a point-blank gunshot before grabbing a Union soldier to use as a human shield until he threw him off the horse once he was clear of the Union army. The Union lost 13,047 troops, while the Confederates lost 10,699 troops. The 23,000 American casualties at Shiloh were more casualties than all of the previous American wars combined and would be the most costly battle until the Battle of Stones River later that same year. The Confederates were ultimately forced to retreat, allowing for the Union to advance into northern Mississippi.